Robyn Hood Annual 2021: The Swarm

Robyn Hood Annual 2021: The Swarm

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Written by Joe Brusha

Illustrated by Ismael Canales & Juan Francisco Mota

Coloured by Maxflan Araujo & Walter Pereyra

Lettered by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios

The Spider Queen, Lord of Flies, King of Serpents and the Scorpion Queen have all tested their mettle against earth's greatest heroes and come up short. Now with their powers combined to form the SWARM they are ready to take their revenge and destroy anyone who stands in their way.

I’ve been wanting to see the characters coming together more and it looks like that is finally happening. With so few heroes in the Zenescope Universe it’s nice to see how the bonds of friendship with Peyton, Liesel, Belle and Robyn are finally starting to bear fruit. So the next thing I need to ask and wonder about is will all these continue to happen in these one-shots or will there be a team book, one title designated for the combined adventures, while their solo adventures continue. I’m also way past ready for more than single issue stories, it’s time for the limited series to come back and I mean six issue runs. Every now and then as a filler issue it’s okay but this is getting out of hand and there’s no sense of regularity.

This story would benefit from that extended format in how this could be told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is tad compressed but overall still easy to understand. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is a bit squashed and needs to be extended more. The pacing suffers a bit with so much crammed into this, this comes with the last ¼ of the book at least that’s where it is most noticeable.

How we see this structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow start off strong but at some point it starts to feel rushed. That moment when a third dimensional Robyn was shown made me feel like i missed a whole chapter that really needs at least eight more pages for that whole section where the big mama jama talks about how she conquered earth. I will say I like seeing Robyn doing her research though and that expands her intelligence gathering and makes her a better detective.

The interiors here are really rather nice. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work throughout the issue is fantastic. I would like to see more backgrounds being utilised but with the composition within the panels we see the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story flourish. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding for how colour works.

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There are a lot of exciting things to take away from this. The way the group is able to work together is one of those and the set up for Robyn’s next solo story. It is a good recap of what Robyn’s been through lately and for someone that is interested in seeing what she’s about it’s a good starting point. It catches the reader up on what she’s been through and does expand on her skill set nicely. So overall while there are moments that made me scratch my head it is a good solid story idea and brings us what promises to be an exciting future for Robyn and her friends.